Rich Ristow put together a poetry chapbook called These Apparitions, containing poems written in the style of Ezra Pound or William Carlos Williams. He accepted submissions and completed the chapbook…and then the project moved to a different publisher (Needfire Press). With the move to Needfire came a bonus: the book will now be available on major websites (like Amazon) and not just the publisher’s site. It also came with a caveat: the chapbook needed to be 20 pages longer to meet Needfire’s publishing requirements.

My lovely friend Kevin Lucia was already part of the poetry chapbook. When he found out about the need for more content, he sent the word out to those of us in his address book who might be inclined to participate in such a venture.

The pay was minimal, but poetry has always been a love of mine, so I figured: What the heck? Give it a shot! I scribbled something down, Rich got back to me quickly with his comments, and we worked to make an acceptable poem out of my concept. It was a wonderful experience…and one I thought would be fabulous to share with Ariell Branson — my student, Padawan, and co-author of “Life’s a Beach” (more on that later). I encouraged Ariell to submit to the chapbook, for the experience if nothing else. (Rich is very generous with his feedback.)

What emerged was far more than I expected. That damn girl’s a natural…it kid of makes me sick. She’s a breeze at cover letters, she shrugs at rejection, and when Rich gave her guidance and asked her to write another poem she did. TWICE. He accepted her third entry. I didn’t even help on that one. She did it all by herself.

So THAT’S what happened.

I am proud to say I will now be sharing a ToC with Kevin Lucia AND Ariell Branson, along with a laundry list of many other talented genre poets. These Apparitions will be released in September or October. It’s not up on Amazon yet, but keep an eye on the Needfire website for updates. I’ll also be posting the information here as soon as I know it.